THIS may look like the vicious weapon of some beast from a hell dimension that is out to get you, but it's actually part of a harmless purple flower.

"It's quite an astonishing object," says Rob Kesseler, who created the image with a scanning electron microscope. "This heart shape that it has, with these bobs coming out of it. It's devilish really - menacing."

Actually, it is out to get you. This seed of Krameria erecta, or littleleaf rhatany, latches onto passing animals with its barbs so it can disperse. Because it is only 8 millimetres long, you are unlikely to know you are being used as free transport. Littleleaf rhatany is found in arid environments and the seeds attach themselves to the roots of other plants, tapping them for water.

To take this photo, Kesseler coated the seed in a fine layer of gold for the scanner. He then added false colour in post-production. "I use colour in an intuitive way as an artist," he says. "I use colour to draw in an audience of interested humans."

Kesseler believes that as a contemporary artist he has to draw from the natural world and translate it for his audience. "I'm trying to create things that have a resonance and a tangible visual nature," he says.